Kill the Cat

Some thoughts on story structure...

Photo by Csabi Elter on Unsplash

I'm embarking on writing a new screenplay right now. Ordinarily, that would mean I pull back on the blog posts and newsletters because I'm trying to focus. But scribbling notes yesterday, it occurred to me that, regardless of how many of these I write, they always present problems. And the problems are usually some variation on familiar themes. So, as I wrestled with this latest roadblock, I thought it might be an idea to work through some of these on Substack, live, as it were.

So yesterday's (and today's, and tomorrow's) problem, is structure.

Most of the teachers and books will tell you that screenplays ARE structure. Well, maybe. They will usually go on to tell you that this structure takes one, immutable form, and that you can learn it and apply it and away you go. Well... No. Not really.

A story needs a beginning, a middle and an end. I guess that's three acts. But they don't necessarily have to come in that order.

From Syd Field to Save The Cat, we're told to start with some kind of status quo and then have an inciting incident which kicks off the plot, but then the hero refuses the call to adventure and there's a debate until he or she finally crosses the "threshold" into the story world and is put through a series of trials. Midway through there is a minor win, after which the whole thing goes south and they suffer some kind of ordeal before entering Act Three, facing their final challenge and emerging, triumphant, but also changed.